Black Rock Shooter: Paradise Lost
by Chronium
Summary: Based on the premise of Black Rock Shooter: Innocent Soul manga. Black Rock Shooter, a member of the Black Shooter army, yearns to find a reason. A reason to all the fighting and the reason for her existence. She will fight, kill, suffer for the truth, but the truth is not always what we would like it to be.
1. Chapter 1

Hello! Kicking this thing off with a running start. If you guys haven't read Innocent Soul yet, I'd highly recommend it, cause it's awesome.

Prepare for OOC! also an OC...yeah

I'm gonna refer to Black Rock Shooter as just Rock, that's just my personal preference. Anyways, I hope this is a good read. Comments and suggestions and the like are welcome. Always looking to improve. **R&R!**

* * *

**Chapter 1**

Hazama, otherwise known as the Threshold, a strange purgatory world that exists between Heaven and Earth where the restless souls who have departed the Earth dwell. A place that is neither Heaven nor Hell, a place where these stagnated souls wander the endless wasteland. A world full of pain, sorrow, and mysteries, and the story of the girl with the flaming blue eye.

* * *

"Hey Rock, heads up."

Rock opened her eyes and slowly lifted her head, which was tilted down. She was sitting atop a large plateau which overlooked the white barren wasteland that was left scarred by the countless fights that ravaged this plane of existence. Rock looked out into the distant horizon, not moving a muscle nor responding to the voice that called her. Her hood and coat fluttered gently in the wind.

"Hey, you listening to me?", said the voice again.

"Yes", said Rock, turning her head to the side to meet the black, dragon-like serpent that lay perched on her shoulders. She shifted her gaze to the sky, whose atmosphere gave off an impression of hopelessness. It's as if the sky was always polluted, dark, hazy, and grim. Even so, the sun still beamed through this layer of despair in the air, filling the land with just enough light. It was not too long ago that the question of her own existence was brought about and how she yearned to find that answer.

"What's on your mind?", asked the black serpent.

She shook her head, dismissing both the question and lingering thoughts. She caught a glimpse of a figure coming into view from beyond the horizon.

"Could that be it?", asked the serpent.

Without taking her eyes off of the figure she replied, "Wait". The figure eventually came into clear view. "There's no mistaking it, it's the stagnated soul we've been looking for", said the snake. Rock nodded her head in agreement before standing herself up, "Ron". The black serpent wrapped itself around her arm, materializing into a ridiculously large cannon. She leapt off the plateau towards the stagnated soul falling at an impressive speed, and effortlessly landing the long jump. She took a step forward, leaving behind the small crater she made from her landing, and continued at a brisk pace towards the stagnated soul. At this point, the soul had already stopped. It was not of humanoid shape, rather, it was a shapeless dark haze with no features of a human nor of a face. Its only limbs appeared to be the small tentacle-like arms that wavered around it like an aura. Rock continued her advance, undaunted by the eerie appearance of the soul.

"Be careful, haven't seen one like this before", cautioned Ron.

Rock looked ahead, maintaining her emotionless guise, acknowledged Ron's warning with a simple nod. She broke into a sprint, quickly closing the distance between the soul and herself. The soul let out a blood-curling screech in response to Rock's sudden movement. She shot herself up into the air, quickly aiming her Rock Cannon at the soul. She leveled herself out, and with the sound of the humming of her cannon, let loose a volley of blue shells that rained down towards the soul. The soul was quick to dodge the incoming shots, moving and weaving with great haste as it dodged all of Rock's shots. As Rock was nearing the ground, the soul grabbed her waist with one of its limbs, swinging her high into the air and slamming her with great force into the ground. Rock let out a grunt of pain as blood spilled out of her mouth onto the ground. The soul started to reel her in towards itself, as Rock tried to aim her cannon at it, it tightened its grip on her. She winced from the crushing force on her stomach, but ignored it as she aimed her cannon and shot a round straight through the mass of the soul.

The soul let out another blood-curling screech as the dark haze that made up the soul started to dissipate from the circular hole in its center mass. It relinquished its hold on Rock, as the haze evaporated into the air. Rock stood herself up and wiped the blood off of her mouth with her gloved hand and walked towards the evaporating soul.

"Rock! You okay?", asked Ron who was now back in his serpent form floating beside Rock.

"I'm fine", said Rock as she nonchalantly walked to where the stagnated soul was. It left behind a glass sphere, with what appeared to be flames within. The color of the flame was black, something that was rare. Remains of stagnated souls were usually a variety of color, but not many were black. Black flames are a result of a stagnated soul wandering the Threshold for a long time, to the point where the soul loses its memories of their human suffering and end up as husks of their former selves. Rock picked up the sphere and looked at it for a moment before putting it away in her coat.

"Alright, let's report back to the Citadel", said Ron.

* * *

Rock and Ron came upon the Citadel, whose outer structure was similar to that of the Coliseum. The Citadel is both headquarters and home to the Black Shooter army along with the Rulers of Hazama, their creators. At the gate stood two rows of gargantuan knights wielding large spears for weapons. The two walked up to the gate and were promptly asked to identify themselves. Rock closed her eyes for a moment before opening them again, with her left eye emitting a blue flame. The knight stepped aside and allowed the two to pass. As they walked into the open area of the Citadel, there were greeted with quick glances by the other Black Shooters walking about, many of which wore the same coat as Rock did. Black Shooters don't usually converse with other Black Shooters, given their silent nature. At the center, there stood a large tower with the emblem of a white star at the top of the tower. The two made their way towards the entrance of the tower, which was located in between two grand pillars and a shallow flight of stairs that led out to the courtyard. Outside the large castle-like double doors of the tower, stood two Black Shooters. They wore the same coats as the other Black Shooters, but their faces were shown and had different garb on. One had a large broadsword strapped to her back while the other didn't seem to have any noticeable weapons on her.

"Halt", said the Black Shooter with the large sword, "Identify."

"Black Shooter number 01451", said Rock.

The two pushed open the large doors and stepped aside, allowing Rock and Ron to enter. They walked through the tower, down the long corridors taking several turns along the way until they came to an atrium shaped like an octagon with large pillars at each corner. At the center was an altar with a beam of light that seemed to be shooting upwards. Rock walked up to the light, pulling out the soul they recently retrieved, and placed it on the ground in the light. She took a couple steps back and looked at the soul enveloped in light, waiting for something to happen.

"This soul will take a while to purify", said Ron.

Rock stared blankly at the sphere, its pulsing flame igniting something within Rock. "Why do we do this?", asked Rock. She paused for a little while, as if she were pondering something, before saying under her breath, "…Who am I…"

"Those are some dangerous questions, Black Shooter", said a voice coming from behind.

Rock quickly turned around to meet the owner of the voice. "Ram."

"You're digging into something very dangerous, young one. Just remember that once you find the answer to your questions, you will be trapped in this plane of existence. _Forever_", said Ram lovingly. Ram has always been interested in Rock ever since Rock started showing signs of emotion and instability. This was something that marked corruption within a Black Shooter. Rock did not reply, but stared coldly at Ram, maintaining her calm composure. Ram chuckled, "Anyways, we have a new assignment for you. A messenger will brief you and you are to depart as soon as possible", she said before leaving the atrium.

"Ch…that woman, working us like dogs", said Ron."

* * *

"There are over a billion stagnated souls in Hazama", said Ron. "…We've been walking for days and we haven't seen a single one!"

The two were indeed traveling for a while now. They traversed the barren wasteland with little scenery change, with craters being the only things they've seen so far. Rock ignored Ron's comment and continued walking. Although she didn't show it, she was also weary of their current assignment as they were given very little information about it.

"…Anyways, the messenger told us that if we head in this direction, which we've been doing for quite some time now, we'll come across a 'foreign land'", said Ron. "And once we get there, we're supposed to investigate the area for reconnaissance?", said Ron looking at Rock. Rock did little to acknowledge her companion's unnecessary reiteration of their assignment except for a slight nod, which was all she ever did to acknowledge him anyways. "I don't like this one bit, a lot of Black Shooters have been assigned this same mission, and have all ended up presumably missing." Ron sighed, disappointed from his partner's lack of reaction, and continued to float silently next to Rock.

"Hey Rock."

No response

"Remember when you were first assigned to me? I sure do, being assigned a child whose chest was as flat as a board, that was great. You looked like a-"

Ron was abruptly interrupted as Rock's hand clasped his mouth shut, grabbed the end of his tail with her other hand, and stretched him out as far as he could go before wringing him out like a whip that hit the floor. Ron let out a long groan as she threw him over her shoulder, tongue dangling out of his mouth.

"Well this is pretty…foreign", said Ron. The two had come across a peculiar land that could not be ignored. It was literally like an oasis in a desert, with bright green grass that encircled the large body of water in the middle. Nothing separated the grass from the barren ground they walked on, it was as if the ground was transformed into grass. In the middle was a large pond whose water appeared to be blue, with ripples being made from the center of the pond. With Ron resting on her shoulder, Rock stepped onto the grass and walked to the edge of the pond, looking around for anything else that seemed strange. Ron made his way toward the surface of the pond, testing it with his tail before submerging himself. He reemerged quickly.

"That's strange", he said as he floated back to Rock's shoulder. "That's no ordinary water, I can breathe, and I didn't get wet."

Rock looked from Ron to the pond, observing it for a moment before jumping in herself. Ron was right, she was able to breathe, and her clothes weren't getting wet. At the very least, this strange liquid still has the properties of water in that Rock is able to swim through it. The depth of the pond was not too deep, stretching down as far as the light from the sun shown, with the bottom being a bit dark. Rock reached the bottom of the pond, looking around the floor for something, anything. But what is she supposed to find here?

"Hello", said a voice.

Rock was startled by the voice, looking around frantically for the source. "What can I do for you?", it said again. The voice wasn't coming from the area, rather, it was coming from her head.

"He's using telepathy, keep on your guard", said Ron. "Who are you?", he added.

"Who am I? Why, I'm just a simple denizen of this great Threshold we all exist in", said the voice.

"Show yourself", said Rock as emotionless as ever.

"Very well", the voice chuckled. The liquid they were in grew heavy, as everything around them started to shake. Out of the ground came streaks of white light that moved over Rock's head.

"Ron!", she shouted.

"I can't move!"

They were soon enveloped in the blinding light that formed a dome around them, and started to slowly retreat back into the ground with the two inside. All Rock could see was white, even if she closed her eyes she could still see the blinding light. She looked around herself only to find that she couldn't even see her limbs, all she could see was the white expanse that surrounded her. Drowsiness soon overtook her, grunting to herself as she tried to move her limbs to no avail, and finally succumbing to the embrace of slumber.

As Rock came to, opening her eyes to a blurry vision of what appeared to be a man in front of her, she realized she was moving. She fidgeted a little before realizing that she was being carried in his arms. Immediately, she swings a fist straight at what looked like to be the man's face. He dodged her initial attack, but Rock landed a hit straight to his gut with her elbow, causing him to grunt and release her. She quickly regained her footing as she landed on the floor stumbling back a little, still dazed from being unconscious. Ron was nowhere to be seen, but despite being weaponless, Rock was also very skilled in hand to hand combat. She could see clearly now, the man who stood before her. He wore a long black trench coat that ran down to his lower body with black pants, leather strap boots, a grey vest that covered his torso, and a large silver pauldron on his left shoulder. His arms were bare and bulging, save for his gloves and strips of white cloth that covered his forearms. His face was hidden by the hood of the trench coat along with a dark blue handkerchief that was tied loosely around his neck. The blue flame in her left eye ignited as she engaged the presumed enemy with a series of kicks and punches, all of which were dodged effortlessly. She continued to launch an onslaught of attacks with incredible strength and speed, but was unable to get even a single hit. Rock paused and jumped back from her target, as her attacks were ineffective. With heavy breaths, she kept on her guard, not letting the target approach any closer.

They were in a strange place, with lush grass all around them, but there was no sunlight. The only source of light was from the moon, which glowed brightly in the night sky. The glow of the moon gave almost a calm ambience to Rock's situation, despite being in combat. The grass turned into small slopes of hills, with a forest standing not too far away from the two as a river ran into it. It was almost like a fantasy world.

"I am not your enemy", said the man.

Rock was taken aback by his voice, it was the same voice from before.

"Where's Ron?", she demanded.

The man outstretched his hand, forming his hand as if he were holding a sphere. He lifted his hand up, which in turn made a white sphere appear out of the ground and dissipate. Within the white sphere was the serpent familiar, who seemed to be safe but unconscious. Rock quickly scooped him up and forcibly transformed him into the Black Blade.

"Now there's no need for that", said the man. "If I had wanted to hurt you, I'd have done so by now."

"Then who are you?", asked Rock.

"Your salvation."

* * *

A/N: As I said, I started this thing off pretty quickly. And excuse my imagery of my OC, I've never really been good at explaining things such as this in full detail.

Comments and the like are appreciated! Tell me wacha' think so far.


	2. Chapter 2

2nd chapter of Paradise Lost! Please excuse the long text, I've been trying to deviate from storytelling just from dialogue. Hope it's a good read.

Enjoy! **R&R!**

* * *

**Chapter 2**

"My salvation?" Rock paused as she said this to herself. "What do you mean?"

"It is exactly as I say," replied the hooded man. "I won't hurt you."

Rock stood silently, her Black Blade still pointed at him, ready to attack at any moment. She looked around to observe her surroundings. She was in an unknown area with no knowledge of how to get out of this place. With very little options, her best choice was to trust that this man was true to his word.

"What do you want with me?" she asked.

"Come," said the man as he started walking towards Rock. She stiffened up, tightening her grip on her Black Blade as he neared her. The man walked right past her, ignored her agitated stance, and continued to walk towards the forest that was behind her. She lowered her Black Blade and watched as the man moved towards the forest. He stopped for a second to turn around to her and motion his head, saying 'let's go.' For now, she would have to cooperate with him, even if she had decided to walk away, there would be nowhere for her to go.

The two were walking in silence as neither of them would open up a conversation, Rock would be the last person that would. The path was dimly lit by the moonlight that pierced through the forest canopy. The only sound that could be heard was the foliage that rustled as they moved passed and Rock's boots as they hit the ground. Rock still kept her distance from the man, walking a couple feet behind him. You can never be too safe.

"Ah!"

Rock jumped a little from the sound that came from right next to her ear. It was Ron, who had just awoken.

"Rock! What happened? What's going on?" asked Ron frantically.

She patted him on his scaly head trying to calm him down, and then pointed at the man whom they were following.

"You!" shouted Ron. The man turned around, his face still hidden within his hood, and pointed at himself in playful ignorance. "Come on Rock!"

Rock shook her head, "It's okay."

* * *

"So, where are you taking us?" asked Ron.

"To my house," said the man. "Don't worry, it won't be long until we get there."

"Right. Well, what's your name?"

"Daisuke."

"That's an…interesting name."

"Thank you. Anyways, we have arrived!"

The forest opened before them, revealing an open area of grass. There stood a house in the open field, it was of modern-Japanese design with two stories, walled off by a brick wall that surrounded the compound of the house, and with a small metal gate that led to the front door. It was a peculiar structure, the two have never seen anything like it before. They looked at in curiosity as they followed the man through the front gate and up to the door. It swung open and the man stepped inside with Rock behind him. She couldn't make out much, the room was dark, and they were standing on tile ground that seemed to be lower than the rest of the floor of the house.

"Would you mind shutting the door?" asked the man.

Rock did so silently and was a bit confused to find the man sitting down untying his boots.

"Sorry, but could you please take off your boots as well?" asked the man as he chuckled.

Rock and Ron looked at each other in confusion before complying. She looked down at her pale white feet, something she hasn't seen in a long time, wiggling her toes in curiosity. She stepped off of the cold tile floor and onto the hardwood floor. She saw the shadow of the man reaching for something on the wall and with the sound of a click, the lights went on. Rock squinted a little from the brightness but was now able to see clearly. The wood floor was of a rich mahogany color, with a hallway and staircase squished next to each other, and an opening to another room adjacent to the staircase where the man was now heading into. The room was long, as there was both a living room and a kitchen on opposite ends of the room. The dining table sat somewhere between the two areas with a sliding glass door next to the table. The man walked over to the large white L-shape couch of the living room and sat down, offering a seat to Rock who proceeded to sit on the other segment.

Silence befell the room, as Rock looked at the man blankly, who also seemed to be looking blankly at the black screen of the television.

"Ah, I'm sorry. How rude of me, would you like something to drink?" asked the man as he took off his hood. He was smiling, which caught Rock a little off guard. He looked like he was in his late teens or early twenties, with disheveled jet black hair, and dark brown eyes. "Well?"

Rock shook her head. "Who are you?"

"I told you already, I'm Daisuke," he said.

"That doesn't explain anything!" interjected Ron. "You know what she means!"

"Alright alright," said Daisuke. "By the way, would you like to borrow some clothes? You look kind of cold with that scantily clad outfit there."

Rock looked down at herself for a moment and looked back up, promptly shaking her head.

"Mmm," he said as he cocked an eyebrow. He looked to Ron, "You there, Ron was it? Do you know the purpose of your creation?"

"Of course, I, as well as others, were created as tools to be used by the Black Shooter army," said Ron.

"The Black Shooter army…created by the supposed 'rulers' of Hazama, correct?"

"…What are you getting at?" asked Ron.

"A long time ago, before the creation of the Black Shooters, there existed another army known as the Purifiers. To address the problem of the overflowing amount of souls entering the Threshold, the 'rulers' otherwise known as the Council, created such army. The Purifiers had the same objective as the Black Shooters, which was to find stagnated souls for capture and purification. They were a powerful force, besting even the most fearsome of souls."

"Wait a minute," said Ron. "You talk as if you were…there."

"Because I was", said Daisuke. "I am a Purifier."

"I…I see. Does that mean there are more of you around?"

Daisuke took a deep breath before sitting back into the cushions of the couch. "Yes there are, although I have lost contact with them. I believe that they are still out there, hopefully still alive," he said.

"The Purifiers. What happened to them?" asked Rock.

Daisuke cocked his eyebrow again, surprised at the curiosity of this Black Shooter. "We grew too powerful, too powerful to control and to keep in check. So we rebelled against the Council."

"What caused you to rebel?" asked Ron.

He chuckled, "Curiosity," he said as he looked straight at Rock. "Originally, we were created as tools for the Council. What was so special about us was that our emotions were not inhibited prior to our creation, thus allowing us to tap into our emotions as fuel, similar to when Black Shooters invoke their flame. Initially, we were initially predisposed to feel only the emotions that were embedded into us, but this changed over time as we became self-aware. We started to question the authority of the Council but still followed orders until we discovered the truth."

The room fell silent as Daisuke sat quietly, thinking to himself. "What's the truth?" asked Rock.

Daisuke looked at Rock solemnly before saying, "The path you choose is a hard one, I hope you know that." He got up from the couch and walked towards Rock. "But before you discover the truth of this world, you must first discover the truth within yourself. But here is a warning, you are not the first Black Shooter to have come here. I have shown all of the ones before you their own truths and their egos have all perished as a result. But something about you is different, not like any of the others."

"Now," said Daisuke who was now standing in front of Rock. She was still sitting down calmly on the couch, but her interest still showed from the way she sat up on the couch. This could possibly be what she has been looking for, the answer to the question she herself could never solve. And the opportunity was right in front of her. Daisuke reached out his hands, fisted together, presenting them to Rock. "I kind of always wanted to do this," he chuckled. "Anyway, you have two options, in my right hand, contains the truth while the other contains ignorance. If you choose ignorance, I will send you back to the Threshold where you will have no recollection of our encounter. Where you will continue to serve your purpose as a tool worthy only of death and continue to live out a colorless life of illusions. Or you can choose the truth that will change your entire world."

Rock promptly pointed at his right fist to which he chuckled. "You have been forewarned," he said. "Come closer," he said as he outstretched his fist closer to Rock until it was right in her face. He paused for a moment before asking, "Are you ready?" To which Rock nodded. He slowly reached out his right hand and opened it as he covered Rock's eyes. "Take a deep breath."

Rock took a deep inhale and promptly exhaled.

* * *

She opened to her eyes to something she had never seen before. She looked around to see that she was in a forest like area, sitting on a bench with melon bread in her hand. Looking down at herself, she saw that she was dressed in some high school sailor uniform. She sat at the top of a flight of stairs and looked to see if there was anyone around her. Then she started to slowly remember. She remembered the pain, anguish, frustration, sadness, despair, and heartbreak. Her eyes widened as she dropped the melon bread, her mind being bombarded by all the anguish she had experienced up to this point. Despite remembering the sorrow, she could not bring herself to remember what it was that brought her to feel such pain. She found herself in tears, clutching her head as she shut her eyes and tried to remember.

"There you are, …-san!" said a voice.

She looked up and towards the voice that came from the bottom of the stairs. There were two girls there, slowly making their way up the stairs with smiles on their faces. One of them had a cigarette in her mouth. "We've been looking for you all over!"

She remembers now, these two were classmates of hers, but they were definitely not friends. The two were now standing in front of her, looking at her with smiles.

"What are you doing up here all by yourself …-san?" asked one of the girls.

"Yeah yeah, since you're so smart, I've been dying to ask you a question about our lesson today," said the girl with the cigarette.

Fear struck through her body, causing her to shake and tremble all over. She tried to get up and run away, but she couldn't, she was petrified in fear.

"Come on! Let's play a little," said one of the girls as she pulled her up by her uniform. The two started shoving her between themselves with each shove getting harder and harder. They started to get aggressive, pulling on her uniform with every shove until it ripped apart to show her bare skin. They kicked her down to the floor and laughed menacingly. Never before has she felt so powerless, afraid, confused, and scared. Why is this happening to her? What did she possibly do to deserve this?

"Hey …-san, have you ever tried putting a cigarette out with your own body? The human body is quite sturdy, you know?" the girl said as she took the cigarette out of her mouth.

She mustered enough willpower to try to scramble away, but she was stopped by a kick straight to her stomach. She gasped for air and clutched her stomach as the girl who kicked her kicked her again so that her exposed back faced them. She tried to crawl away using her hands, desperately digging into the grass at an attempt to escape. A shoe came down on both of her hands, she screamed as she heard some bones cracking as her strength faded.

"I know it's a silly question right?" said the girl with the cigarette in her hand as she stood over her. "I'm just a little curious."

She screamed with all her might, kicking her legs and limbs as she tried to get away from the pain. But she just couldn't, as the heat of the cigarette bore down on her back, she let out screams of pain and agony. Tears filled her vision as the two girls moved to the side, bursting in laughter.

"You're voice is just too cute …-san!" said one of them.

'Why…' she thought. 'What have I done?'

Before she knew it, she was sent tumbling down the flight of stairs. She became disoriented as she lost feeling in her body, all she could see now was the bottom of the stairs and the endless tears that filled her vision. Then, her head was filled with voices and scenes that flashed before her.

"It's a girl!"

"We love you, so much."

"Nee-san! Help me!"

"Murderer!"

"Slut!"

"Don't you understand? Everyone hates you!"

"Die."

Rock opened her eyes and let out a blood curling scream. She got up from the couch, knocking the coffee table away and fell to the ground on her knees. Tears overflowed from her eyes and ran down her face and onto her hands that covered her.

"Rock!" said Ron as he rushed to her. "What happened, what did you see? What did you do to her?"

"I showed her her past life," said Daisuke. "But…something's not right."

"What do you mean? You destroyed her mind!" said Ron.

"No, all the other Black Shooters that have been shown their past lives became nothing but husks. But she…she is showing emotion," said Daisuke.

Ron looked from Daisuke to his partner, "Rock get a ho-"

Ron was interrupted by Rock as she screamed at the top of her lungs, shaking the entire house. Daisuke's eyes widened as he stumbled from the shockwave. Now the entire house started to shake, as if there was an earthquake originating from where Rock was. Daisuke quickly grabbed Ron and ran out of the house with great haste before it erupted in an explosion. Daisuke tumbled over from the explosion, leaving Ron on the grass as bits of the house came flying down from the sky. The two looked back to the wreckage and the purple fire that enveloped what was once the house.

"I have a very bad feeling about this…" said Daisuke.

"Rock!" shouted Ron.

The purple flame continued to dance over the wreckage of the house, its heat could be felt from where the two were. Within the fire there stood a shadow of a person. It slowly started to become clearer. It was Rock, but she was different, instead of her normal clothes and cloak, she was covered in black armor that replaced her boots and the sleeves of her arms. A large chest plate covered her torso and her left arm appeared to be mechanical. In place of her Rock Cannon was her Cannon Lance, an extremely intimidating weapon. On her head, she wore some sort of metallic crown that hung on her head through her left twin tail.

She stared at Daisuke intently, with eyes that have been lost to emotion and suffering. The eyes that once glowed a gentle blue, are now enflamed with a ferocious purple.

* * *

A/N: Not much to say here! :P I'm still trying to keep to the stoic character that is Black Rock Shooter, so I'll be keeping her dialogue relatively short.

Hope it was a good read, if not, constructive comments, suggestions, and the like are always welcome.


End file.
